Neil Lennon defends Celtic Dubai trip in 'absolute hypocrisy' blast at critics

Celtic manager Neil Lennon has defended the club's much-criticised trip to Dubai. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

The Parkhead club has been heavily criticised for making the trip in the midst of tightening coronavirus restrictions, which resulted in Lennon, assistant John Kennedy, and 13 players being placed into self-isolation after defender Christopher Jullien tested positive for the virus upon returning to Glasgow.

It led to Celtic chief executive Peter Lawell issuing an apology to fans in a video released online.

However, a defiant Lennon has hit back at what he believes was unfair criticism of the trip, branding it "absolute hypocrisy”, while also confirming a new positive Covid case among the playing squad ahead of Wednesday’s match away to Livingston.

"Another player has been deemed positive, it is someone who is self-isolating," he said.

"Everybody's negative, the whole squad is negative bar two players.

“I think that's remarkable and I think it totally blows out the water the way the trip, the training camp has been portrayed by certain quarters of the media, by certain pundits, and by certain government officials as well.

"We didn't abuse any 'privilege', we did the right things, we were totally professional.

"We had a little drink in the afternoon on the day of, completely allowed, no law breaking.

"But we come back to this barrage of absolute hypocrisy."

Lennon will return to the dug-out for the trip to Livingston on Wednesday after the Celtic boss missed the 1-1 draw against Hibernian and the goalless draw against Livingston at Parkhead.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.